


Paradise

by Schuyler



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Life Model Decoys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1628240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schuyler/pseuds/Schuyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At first there were six LMDs and six bases.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradise

Dr. Theodore Koenig was - had been - one of Nick Fury’s favorite people. He was a brilliant scientist, the center of SHIELD’s scientific think tank, but Nick liked him because he was an idealist. He and Phil used to email each other about Captain America books. He believed in SHIELD and what it could do for the world. And he was trustworthy. Nick didn't label very many people trustworthy.

But Teddy was a little ... there was a reason that Teddy ran a think tank. He had wild ideas, only some of which could be pulled off and even fewer with actual applications. Except that sometimes, Teddy hit on a miracle. That was true when he realized the Guest could be used to restore life, and it got even truer when he completed the first Life Model Decoy.

When Nick started the process of building a series of secret bases, to which SHIELD could retreat and rebuild in case of the worst, the LMDs were the obvious choice to staff them. Agents they could mold to the cause and who would be strong enough to deal with the isolation. Nick wanted to model them after someone who believed in SHIELD and would pull a trigger to defend it, but also provide good company for anyone stuck in one of these underground bunkers. He chose Teddy.

Six decoys, for the six bases. Alan, Billy, Cooper, Danny, Eric, and Franklin. Time was of the essence, so they were all built at once. And, in every way, they were Teddy’s sons.

 

*

 

An LMD, when first out of the chamber, has nothing in its brain. They’re programmed with the most basic human needs, the things that keep them alive: hunger, thirst, freedom from pain. They learn fast, but they must be taught. And Dr. Koenig spent a year teaching them. They were like children at first, so he read to them. But instead of Grimm or Aesop, they got sanitized versions of mission reports. Instead of princesses, they heard about Peggy Carter. Instead of wizards, they got Howard Stark. And instead of knights, they got Hill and Coulson and Romanov. They learned to read on the SHIELD Handbook and learned enough math to do weapons inventories and rationing. At night, back in their bunkroom, they played video games. They were fun but also improved hand-eye coordination and taught cooperation.

On their first birthdays, they received their badges and their assignments.

 

 *

 

In the early days, they still saw each other. Got permission sometimes to leave base to visit each other, to see their dad. The last time they saw Dr. Koenig, just before his murder, there were still six of them.

Perennial Base was always the most vulnerable. It wasn't even that much of a secret. Hell, it was in the middle of Times Square. But they’d all been so envious of Danny when Captain America was transferred in. Less so when Captain America busted out. After that, the location of the base was public knowledge. They were still shutting it down and getting everything out when mercenaries swarmed the place, looking for SHIELD technology.

And then there were five.

 

 *

 

Franklin was stationed at Persistence, an underwater base off the coast of Florida. There was something noble about Danny’s death in the line of duty, protecting SHIELD’s secrets. Franklin just happened to be on his way back from a briefing on the coast when his boat collided with a sub packed with cocaine fleeing the Coast Guard.

And then there were four.

 

 *

 

After the Chitauri attack, they’d been confined to their bases, on alert at all times. And then ... nothing happened. For a few years, they just traded e-books and played Call of Duty and met online to argue about TV shows.

Then, one ordinary morning, the alert lights went off in all four bases. The followup agent bulletin requested that all SHIELD agents detain and turn over Captain America, should they see him. They were in the middle of a chat about it and how mad their dad would have been when the signal cut out. It took twelve hours for the back channel to come online and by then it was too late.

Pacific Base, in Devonshire, was one of HYDRA’s first targets. It had originally been a Peggy Carter project, so Zola had the files, and it was stocked with weaponry. It took the HYDRA team two hours and three casualties to breach the base, and Cooper took another two out with him.

Pinnacle Base should have been safe, but there was a SHIELD team recuperating in there after a botched mission. A SHIELD team that contained two HYDRA operatives. Alan had dug them out of the snow himself and they repaid him with two bullets in the back of the head.

Pinnacle and Pacific came up on the list of compromised bases and Billy put a video call through to Eric. “It’s just us now.” Eric clenched his jaw and nodded.

And then there were two.

 

 *

 

Billy got the message from Nick Fury himself. He had shown up with a skeleton team and two agents in critical condition. When they were stable again, Nick found Billy in his office. Told him that Eric had been strangled by a HYDRA operative. Taken out by someone he trusted, just like Alan. That the military had taken Providence, leaving Paradise as the last SHIELD base on Earth.

And then there was one.


End file.
